Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!
    Merry Christmas from the Neostriker World! While I do not have any updates for you this week, I did go through and updated each of the episodes to link to the next episode. That way if you want to start from the beginning, you can just click the link at the bottom of each episode to keep continuing. In other news, I'm contemplating obtaining a game development engine and play around with converting Shining into an RPG. Even though Shining was written to be a book, I always had game elements planned and embedded to help keep a solid combat system while writing. However, my plan was that if it were to become a game, it'd be an action rpg. However, if I' the only one developing it, then I'll have to settle for something closer to my skill. No decisions have been made yet as my free time is limited and I don't want to put off my next story much longer. Hopefully I will have my decision made within a few weeks. Until then, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

J. D. Nyle

If you want to start reading from the beginning, you can click this link to go to the first episode.

Details about Legends

Hello Everyone,
    Last time, I posted a little short story that was part of a series called Legends. Legends ties into my next big story by being a series of short stories set in the same universe and time period. As my planned novel focuses mainly on one character and his party as they go on their journey, Legends allows me to flesh out other characters or stories that I can't place in my next novel. For the most part, these short stories will take place after the novel with the exception of the one I posted last time. My hope is to use Legends to help build a world you will be interested in and come to love and expand your imagination. This also provides new stories for you to read while I work on my novel. I hope they inspire you.

J. D. Nyle

Legends: A Knight's Honor

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
    Sure it's actually Friday, but we can still celebrate the weekend as part of Thanksgiving. Now, I try to avoid controversial subjects, but this preview I have for my next series will most likely be distasteful to some people. However, I found this necessary as I required a crime that would require the death sentence and so allow for an act of mercy and a chance for redemption. I'm also using this story to help establish how my next novel will differ from Shining. While there will still be battles, I want to work on establishing a fascinating world more and write for the Adventuring Spirits. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this short story.

Short Story (for Legends): One Knight’s Honor

               One day, a farmer brought a knight to the king’s court for justice. The charges were severe. The knight had raped the farmer’s daughter and the farmer caught him with the aid of one of the loyal knights. The king asked the knight if the accusations were true.

               The foolish knight stood up and spoke, “What of it? She was only a peasant girl.”

               The king grew furious over the remark. “The punishment shall be the same as with any man guilty of this horrible crime. Death.”

               The foolish knight looked up at the sound of his sentence. He then tried to plead with the king saying, “You will kill one your knights? Those who pledged their sword to protect this realm?”

               The just king responded, “I have no place for a knight like you at my table. You do dishonor to the realm. If I were to show leniency to a wicked knight, then the entire kingdom will be destined for doom. If the warriors who are to protect my land are evil, what need does another army need attack us? Rank will not save from the law established long ago. You will die, and all costs resulting from your action shall be taken from your purse.”

               The farmer looked delighted at this sentence. His faith in the king’s sense of justice had rewarded him. But then the prince stood up to speak. He had been in the king’s court that day, listening by his father’s side.

               “Father,” he started, “This man has been condemned. Now let me speak on his behalf.” These words did not resonate well in the ears of the farmer, but he held his tongue, for the prince was well respected among the people.

               The prince continued, “Instead of death, I propose an alternative. Death will not relieve the pain this poor farmer’s family has endured. It is a quick and easy option, but not a complete restitution. I ask that this knight, after being stripped of his rank, be placed under the authority of this poor farmer to work in his home.”

               Both parties looked up in shock and disgust of this proposition, but they allowed the prince to continue, for he was well regarded among the people.

               “Father, I suggest that this foolish knight serve as the farmer’s slave for a year and a half’s time. During this period, the good farmer may maintain the right to execute the fool, but I ask that be held off. Instead, I say that if the foolish knight shall offend the farmer or his family, torture should come first. If he dares attack, then his right arm shall be cut off, but still forced to work the rest of his term. If he continues, then one of his legs as well. He would then be placed out where the people can see him. They will be reminded of his title as knight and see what can happen to those who do such injustice. If he should run, then all the knights in the realm will hunt him down, for he will be branded of his crime.”

               The descriptions of this torture terrified the knight, and the prince could see it. The farmer was still reluctant, but considered it nonetheless.

               In conclusion, the prince then spoke, “However, after this foolish knight has served this sentence, I say give him an opportunity to let him regain his title. All of this, if it is well with you, my father.”

               The king listened to the request of the prince. The queen whispered in his ear and the king heeded her counsel. He gave his verdict, “If the farmer accepts this, then I will grant it. If he does accept, then that proves already he is a far greater man than this foolish knight.”

               There is no need to express the difficulty of a man, who brought another for justice, to receive the perpetrator into his home. What father could possibly accept such a man? He had all the right and intention to demand the previous verdict, but the prince now addressed him.

               “I acknowledge the pain your family has felt and offer my deepest sympathy, but I have given this man’s life into your hand. I implore you to bestow mercy. This act is inexcusable and I will not blame you for having his head now. But what good will it do you? It is quick and simple, but it will not take away the pain. He is a human being like yourself and so I implore you to have mercy. His life is yours to deal with. Please respect it as a human life.”

               The farmer took a breath and thought about it. He could not argue with the prince, for he still held respect for him. While he could and certainly had been just, the prince was more known for his care and sympathy toward his people, despite their deeds.

               The farmer took a look at the prince and then the foolish knight. His hearted ached at the idea of him being near his daughter, but he heeded the prince’s request and accepted the terms.

               When the farmer and the knight were gone, the king called his son over and said, “You know what you have done acts somewhat against what I had said earlier.”

               “Father,” he replied, “What you said is true. If we allow evil to happen in our kingdom, it will surely fall. But what I saw was potential. A potential for that foolish knight to make proper amends with the family and gain something he never had. If we always move to eliminate our subjects with this potential, could we say our kingdom is good?”

               The time the knight served became an important experience. As soon as he arrived, the family was enraged until the farmer had explained it all. Even then, the foolish knight was never unaware of the hatred the family bore toward him. No word of hatred, though, was as powerful as the fair maiden victim’s silence toward the knight. No word from her lips. No smile directed toward him. Only a glare that sank deep into his soul.

Nonetheless, in spite of his pride, the knight worked. He would complain and faced hardships, but he still worked. The promise of the opportunity to regain his post kept him going, but that was not all. As time went by, he saw the maiden’s actions and her kindness toward others. Soon they learned she was with child, and her good deeds never ceased.

               As the knight grew accustomed to witnessing the family’s life, he grew to respect them. His complaints stopped by the third month.

               When the child was born, the family had a mix of joy and sorrow. For since this baby girl was conceived through rape, they were reminded of the incident. However, the knight bore their scorn and did not feel any anger towards them. Instead, as he saw this baby girl, he felt the fatherly instincts. He wished to raise this daughter of his, protect her with all his might, and see her grow to be happy. As he felt love for his child, he felt a greater love for her mother. And so, the knight felt pain inside for having wronged this good maiden.

               After his time of servitude was over, the knight never ceased to work for the family. They grew accustomed to his presence and their scorn had worn off. He had atoned by his good deeds and learned humility. The village no longer bore him hatred either, for he became generous in both gold and action.  Soon, the maiden came to love him as well and they were married properly.

               His story was never hidden from the public. Instead, the knight would tell it himself as to how he came to respect the people and love his wife and daughter. In this end, the prince’s hope was fulfilled. The knight had obtained true honor.

Potential Sequel to Shining?

Hey all!
    So I got two things to talk about. First, I'm thinking that I'm going to start updating this blog once every 2 weeks unless I have something prepared to share. However, With all the things happening around me as of late, I've had little time to write, so I think it will be unreasonable to have you expect an update every week, but hopefully I will have good news soon.
    That being said, my creative mind has not been idle. The reason why progress might be slow is because my ideas tend to be spread out for different series. So sometimes on my run, I think "That would be fantastic for this story" and then while I'm going to bed I think, "I can't wait to put that in that story." I think I have currently planned 7 different novels, and 2 mini series in addition. That's part of why I've relegated one mini-series and one set of stories to until I have help from others. However, if the inspirations keep coming, I might just start writing my sequel to Shining again. Before, I had a problem trying to differentiate my main female protagonists, but I recently came up with a role one could play that would make perfect sense. The only problem is that would change the dynamic and development I originally had planned. So we'll see how it goes.

Inspirations: Legend of Zelda

    A long time ago, a game released for a legendary console. This game would mark the beginning of a new era. The opening scene left me in awe as I saw a colorful world. This game was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While the graphics are certainly outdated now, this game was perfect for a dreamer like myself. I didn't own the game myself. I actually only saw snippets of gameplay at a friend's house, but those glimpses were enough. Swordplay has always hold a dear place in my heart. This could be attributed to the Legend of Zelda, but also movies and tv shows like Zorro, The Three Musketeers, and Star Wars. However, there was one other series that I was watching that helped the Legend of Zelda influence my imagination; Redwall.    With Redwall and Ocarina of Time as the backdrop for a fantasy world, I began my fantastical adventures. However, not knowing much about the Legend of Zelda series, I committed the same mistake as many and thought the main character's name was Zelda (I actually heard this in the store today when two girls were talking about Super Smash Bros.). This mistake led to me naming my character Zel. It wouldn't be until I played Super Smash Bros. that I learned the truth but I kept the name because I had grown attached to it.
     At the same time I was introduced to these fantasy worlds, I was playing another game that would influence my imagination. This game was Mega Man Xtreme. As I was focused in the worlds of both Mega Man and Zelda, I quickly began to blend the two, leading to the development that Zel was Xagem and my first mixture of two fairly different genres. Eventually, I would settle for more of a Mega Man environment and character design, but I would incorporate the idea of dungeons, exploration, and items from the beloved fantasy series. My next intended story is planned to focus more on those elements and less on battles. Hopefully I do a good job.

Inspirations: Mega Man part 1

Hello fellow dreamers,
    Do you remember your first dream? How about the first thing that made you dream? I don't know exactly what it is, but the longest dream was thanks to a little game known as Mega Man II... for the Gameboy. The first character I can remember designing was based off Magnet Man, because magnets were awesome!!! The idea of levitating thanks to magnetic powers or sticking to surfaces so I can fight steadily were ideas I had back then and I wasn't even in school yet. However, those dream characters I made back then faded away fairly quickly due to interests in Pokemon and Star Wars, and also since my brother rarely let me play Mega Man II.
    The main glory Mega Man would obtain in my imagination came in the form of a misunderstanding but still in awe. It was when I saw the cover for Mega Man X. Mega Man in a cool white armor! It actually wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally played this game. Back then, I didn't know what different consoles meant, I didn't know that there were already 3 generations of consoles of which I had none. My first experience with the X franchise was perhaps my favorite Gameboy Color game called Mega Man Xtreme. It actually was the first Mega Man game I ever beat, and I beat it over and over again (as well as unlock that glorious white armor and "Hadouken!").
    I'm guessing at by this point, you all have realized that X is the inspiration for the character Xagem. To this day, Xagem has been the core of my stories the longest, even though he was initially separate from the Neostriker universe. I probably went through maybe 5 revisions of Xagem before I finally incorporated him thanks to the development of "forms." Another fun fact is that Xagem was also the first story I ever wrote as a little kid. It's short and horrible, but it was mine and I loved it.
    There is so much I can talk about with how Mega Man (Rockman in Japanese) helped me and even more so with the character Xagem, but I'll leave those details for another time. I hope you enjoyed this insight.

J, D. Nyle

P.S. If you have any fanfiction on Neostriker, don't forget that you can send it to my email at jnyled@gmail.com for a chance to be uploaded on this blog.

Inspirations: LEGOS

Sometimes the best source of inspiration is the access to creative tools. Playing with Legos led to many different ideas I implemented in Neostriker. For example, both Celonret and Gnugger were characters I first made out of Legos to play with. Gnugger and his transforming ability came from playing with a lego star wars set and adding wheels and playing with different shapes. Eventually I was able to design a humanoid figure that was perfect for use in Neostriker. However,  I also liked the jeep design so I kept the transform idea.

P.S. I'll be busy for a while so there won't be any updates for the next two weeks.

Inspirations: Digimon Part 1

    When I started Neostriker, there were three main series from which I took inspiration. In the end, only one maintained its significant impact at the core and that was Digimon. Many of the ideas I implemented where so core that I didn’t realize how much it had influenced me until I began to look back. Part of this is seen in chapter 18 with Sunflare as it effectively “digivolved.” However, that was perhaps the most explicit reference.  This is because everything else I implemented was later refined by other series like Mega Man.

    The first development beside the “evolution,” was probably the use of neocards. This came from Digimon Tamers. It developed further due to Yu-Gi-Oh at first, but most of those developments were removed. The further advancements came thanks to Mega Man Battle Network. This where I took the idea of Neocard Combos, as well as some weapon designs.

    Perhaps the most substantial inspiration was Forms. While it looks a lot like Cross Fusion from Mega Man NT Warrior, I was playing with the idea long before I even heard of it. In fact, trying to watch Digimon Frontier is how I came to learn about Rockman EXE before it came to the US as Mega Man NT Warrior. I could go into more detail but I believe that is enough for today. I hope you enjoyed learning where many elements came from.

J. D. Nyle

Inspirations: Dragonball Z

When I was a lot younger, I remember Dragonball Z when it was airing on Toonami. Now, this series did not impact Neostriker too much. This was more of a side series that I played around with separate from the Neostriker precursor. The main element that I would attribute is the hunt for the Elite Stones similar to the Dragon Balls. However, I think you might agree with me that it was a weaker aspect of the story. For my next story, I have new plan based off the developed nature Elite Stones. That's all I have for today and I'm currently planning my next post so it should not be a long wait this time.

Inspirations: Pokemon

    I'm sorry for the delay in writing this first update. Certain circumstances have kept me busy but I hope everything shall be calm for a moment. I hinted a while back that I wanted to go over the many inspirations for Neostriker. The first one I will cover is the one that began the long chain: Pokemon.
    Neostriker began it's life as a Pokemon clone. Back when I was very little, Pokemon was absolutely amazing. I believe I went through about 3 different variations before I finally arrived at what would become Neostriker. I remember how I would play Pokemon Blue over and over, and even though the series was banned in my house, I still managed to watch some of the original TV show. These glimpses would unlock my imagination as I would pretend and design more "pokemon" and play with them.
    The first little monster that I recall designing was based off a fox plushie I got as a kid. Now those who read Shining might realize that the first neomon that is friendly happens to be a fox-type. Coincidence? Anyways, you may also have noticed how there is not much you could say is inspired from Pokemon throughout the book. That is the case because, as I said before, it was banned in my house. Eventually I didn't care and I decided to move on to other series for inspiration. So even though Neostriker began it's life with heavy Pokemon influences, I eventually moved away and decided it best not to keep it. There is more to the story, but I feel like it's best to save it for later.

Until Next Time,

J. D. Nyle

The Future of Neostriker: Shining and Fanfiction

    Can you believe it's all done? When I wrote the story over 5 years ago, my intent was just to have fun with it. I didn't care so much about it back then, but as I developed it more and more, I became very attached to this story. It was a fine tribute to the many things that developed Neostriker as well as being a good tool for developing the series. There a few things that I didn't put together until I began writing David's story, but when I look at it, I can't imagine a better way of making it all fit together.
    You may be wondering about the ending for the book. I personally think it is a fitting ending for the major themes of the book. Before I had a sentimental ending, but it turned out less than satisfactory. The current ending may make some people question what was and what wasn't, but that's fine. I originally intended the book to be a complete story to stand on its own, but as I got closer to the end, I wanted to leave an opening that I would allow me to write the sequel I had planned. However, the sequel that has been in my mind for the past 5 years is not right for a book. As much as I want to write the story, I believe it would be best as a movie or TV show. It's something that needs to be seen. As a result, I'm holding back on writing that story for now and focusing on developing the Neostriker Universe.
    I don't know how long it will take before I am finished with my next book, but I can tell you it will take place at the beginning of Neostriker. That's right, it will be partially about Xagem, the character I made which began my development of Neostriker as a whole. I have been planning this story for years, but I wanted to finish Shining before I started actually writing, mostly for practice. In the meantime, I intend to be publishing a mini-series called Legends, which will contain many short stories concerning the characters in my next book.
    Now back to Shining. As I mentioned before, many series were inspirational in my development of Neostriker. Before, I simply copied what I saw. It wasn't until I had a lot of practice with it that I began to transform it into something new. I shall be honored if my series will be the same for others. Therefore, I am encouraging fanfiction for the Neostriker: Shining world. I only ask that you do not write about the beginnings of Neostriker as that is my next subject. I actually have about 7 stories planned, and most of them are hinted in the story. I do hope I will have the time and talent to write all of them eventually.
    The plan to encourage fanfiction was actually part of the intent when writing the ending to Shining. I want people to feel okay with misunderstanding something occasionally, because misunderstanding something can actually be inspiration to the imagination. Neostriker is full of things like that. An example would be Saiber Armor. Yes, I know what happened and what didn't, but I also like playing with the idea of certain things changing. There is actually one thing I would like seeing changed that would make things even more interesting, but I also believe it's time to move on from Shining.
    Now to encourage fanfiction even more, I would like you writers to send me your fanfiction. That way, I can publish them on this blog for everyone to read. If I find something objectionable or controversial, I may edit it for protection of my story and characters. I actually had a very controversial chapter in the early drafts of Shining, but it betrayed the idea of creating a simple story for everyone to enjoy. As a result, I prefer to keep things simple and good while the controversial topics can be for another series.
 

Sincerely,

J. D. Nyle

Update 5/16/15: Currently not accepting fanfiction. I still encourage it, but at the moment I want to focus mostly on the new novel. I will start accepting it again in the future so keep on writing.

delay and fan creation

I'm sorry everyone. Episode 9 will have to be delayed due to some last minute edits to Episode 8 and forgetting how it affected Episode 9. I hope to have it released next Wednesday. Until then, I thank you for your continued support.

Speaking of support, I was sent an image and link by a reader, named Emily (according to her DeviantArt profile). I was very impressed by the work even though it is simply costume jewelry. Apparently, it was crafted years ago but it looks like a perfect representation of what Jenny's pendant might look like. I might have to commission a real thing.

Looking through her other work, I am even more impressed. If I need anything steampunk related, I might have to contact her. If the link above doesn't work, you can find her profile at http://nonconformity777.deviantart.com/

Hello and Plans

Hello Everyone!
    I am J. D. Nyle. I started this blog in hopes of beginning the launch of my project for the past 15 years, Neostriker. This universe I have designed has been my secret pride and now I hope to share it with you!
    I have written a story, with the first draft completed over 5 years ago. Now, the editing is near completion as I debated how I wanted to publish it. Before, I've kept my story a secret, written as practice before I began my official series. However, as time went on, I began to think it might be worth sharing as I prepare for my next story which I have always intended to publish. Part of the reason for this change is I realized the concepts in my story, though original to me, have been explored partially in series I never heard about until after I finished another draft last year. Since then, I realized that if I kept sitting on this project, people would not give me credit for the ideas I have developed on my own. As a result, I hope that by launching my project, it will establish my work as it was.
    I do not mean to say that I did not take inspiration from other works. In fact, that is impossible to do. However, the inspiration I have taken were simply the building blocks. What I have done with those blocks I consider to be my own creation, and a few years ago, I certainly thought it was original.
   As I mentioned before, I do intend to publish my story and on this blog! My plan is to serialize the story, releasing a few chapters, called episodes, a week. With the longer chapters, it will probably be only one chapter a week. Either way, I plan to have the entire story published within 15 weeks. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading the first story in my Neostriker series, Shining.

J.D. Nyle